Thursday, June 25, 2015

After so many lovely compliments on the ribbed slouchy and lots of requests for a pattern, I've managed to pull one together! Well, a pattern of sorts, more of a 'how to' I'd say.

As most of you would know, I'm not so great with the pattern following and like to make things up as I go. For this one, with whoever I happened to be making for, I'd chain roughly how long I thought it should be to make a good slouch (using different family members head sizes to guide) and then repeat row after row until it looked about the right size.

For this exercise, I am basing my pattern on the adult one pictured above in olive green. It's a little more slouchy on my middle guy because it was made for my husband, but I actually like it like this on him!

The cream one with the pompom was made for a ten year old, which fits more snug but still has slouch when its not turned up.

You'll need a 4.5mm hook and approx. 100 - 150gm of 8ply yarn.

To begin, I have chained 60 (50 for the child size) plus 1 (this is my turning stitch)

First Row..
1 treble into the back loop of each chain all the way to the end, chain 1 and turn your work

Second Row..
just like your first row, 1 treble into the back stitch of each treble in the previous row, do this all the way to the end, chain 1 and turn your work

Subsequent Rows..
Repeat as per row 2 until your work is the desired width to wrap around the head. For this I have worked approx. 47 rows.

After about the fourth row, you'll be able to see the rib effect taking shape..

To finish..
Tie off your yarn, leaving a long tail. Make sure it's long enough to gather your top and to stitch the beanie's sides together.

To gather your top, we simply weave the yarn tail through the top stitches using a tapestry needle, and pull tight so that it forms a round.

Fasten this off and neatly stitch up your gap at the very top. You could use a pompom to disguise your stitching if its a bit rough.

All that needs to be done now is to join your sides, once again using a tapestry needle. Be careful to keep your stitches neat and you'll find they will be almost invisible when you hold/wear your beanie.
Weave in your ends.